I can’t believe that it was 4 years ago that we said, “I Do.” For our anniversary I thought I’d share one of my favorite wedding week moments.

Wedding Week Tuesday:

Our last night before the festivities began, before our friends came in town, before we started moving so fast that the days would blur together in one big mash up of food and laughter and getting ready and talking and crying and did I mention eating(?). Kurt and I sat two wide in front of our computer to get our vows pounded out. I’m sure we were both thinking ‘why oh why did we commit to write our own vows?’. After a long time of just sitting inspiration-less, I ran to our room and pulled out a letter. ‘His Letter’, the one that forever changed our lives. Funny how after almost 6 years together he found that he could best express himself to me through written words. Funny because this was my area, my way. Funny that this letter would be the foundation of the vows we would write together and say to each other on our wedding day. Funny…and somehow fitting. The words I felt I overused during the bumps and bends in our relationship were the phrases that ran through his head as our relationship sat on the precipice one year before we got married. These longings that flowed from my heart throughout our years together were the basis for the letter that Kurt wrote me to say, with things hanging in the balance, “I understand now…” He had tears streaming that night at Flying Star as he finished ‘telling’ me that all he wanted was, “to convince [‘my girl’] that I now see so many things through her eyes.” That evening still haunts me. Words from his heart imprinted themselves on mine, or maybe it was the other way around… It was one of the first times I felt I truly looked into his soul. Revisiting this moment together, reflecting on the relationship we had and the one we had created from it, was an eye-opening and precious moment. It was bare and naked. It was taking an honest look back and feeling genuine gratitude that God could give such beauty and perfection from the former. I knew my heart at moments in our relationship: hopeless, sad, uncertain, wondering if I would have to compromise or be flexible on the desires of my heart for my future husband and our wedding. I didn’t. I made not ONE compromise when it came to my happily ever after. My expectations were exceeded. My heart overflowed. And from these emotions we poured our vows out on paper. We laughed. We cried. We hugged. We had one of those moments that feels like a glimpse into eternity. God was good. God is good. This moment is tucked away in my heart. Not much could compare.

Our Wedding Vows

I will strive to always trust you with my whole heart.

In all situations I will make your feelings my utmost concern.

I will work to remember and give you the little things that make you happy.

I will remind you often that I am in love with you, that you are a priority and that I choose you.

I will always try to relieve you- to be the one who calms you, the one who fixes things, and the one who you can rest with.

I realize that I have the power to change, I am willing to grow and change with you through every season of our lives.

No matter where our days take us, I promise I will always come home to you.

I will be open to what you have to teach me, I will try to listen more than I argue and laugh more than I cry.

I promise to never stop planning our future, to never give up on our dreams, to never-never give up on us.

I will always trust that God is in control, I promise to encourage you when this is hard for you to believe.

I have been waiting for this day for my whole life and will never stop thanking God that he made you for me.

June 15, 2007

Of course some of the inspiration for our vows came from other places… for those of you who know me, I’m not much of a laugh out loud at jokes/videos/emails type of person. This video however, pushed me from laughter to tears (a trademark move- if I get laughing too hard, watch out. I have been known on many occasions to turn quickly from laughing hysterically into a bawling fool). I am pretty sure that my easy-to-laugh husband loved me more in that moment of uncontrolled laughter. Though it was a very serious ‘vow moment’, when we had to say “never-never give up on us.” I seriously almost lost it every time 🙂

Like this:

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

-1 Corinthians 13:13

♥Happy Valentines Day to my two loves at first sight♥

I love you my Love Muffin Baby, Ava Rae. We were blessed with you before the prayer was even verbalized. You were the baby we had talked about. The baby we knew we wanted. You were part of our dream. Our dream to be young parents. To start a family. You would be the first, most brilliant thing we did together. God would use you to change us. To grow us. We didn’t know this kind of joy until your arrival. You would become our air, our life, our hearts in human form. Being a mom, your mom, gave me a purpose and a new lease on life. I am forever thankful for a sweet moment I had while holding you and knowing I was exactly where I was supposed to be. I dreamt about your blond curls and brown eyes. I knew you the moment I laid eyes on you. You were a gift. The sweetest I have ever received.

I love you my Buddha Baby, Elle B! You, child, I wanted desperately. My arms ached for you before you were conceived. I knew, just knew, that my life wouldn’t be complete without you. You were ‘Baby Sorenson’ to most. But I was just sure you were a girl. I was just sure that ‘sisters’ were written into the future of our family. Your birth day was one of the best days of my whole life. Your entrance into our family will forever mark a day filled with all of my favorite things. Fun with dad. Laughing. Food Network. Make-up. Answered prayers. I will never forget how precious I felt that God said ‘YES’ to all of our prayers for your birth story. Your arrival felt effortless and painless- it was like things were as they should be. Our family grew seamlessly that day. Your smell. The weight of your sweet body in my arms. You make me happy. You were made for me, girl!

Like this:

On Thursday the 4 of us along with the rest of the Sorenson/Prochnow gang will be heading out to Carson City, Nevada to celebrate a “Wood” Christmas. We are really looking forward to some snowy weather, Norwegian meatballs and quality time with the Sorenson part of our family!Since we will be out of town we got to celebrate an early Christmas this past Sunday. Kurt and I felt that the Christmas Spirit really found us as we watched Minute to Win It – Christmas Style these past few weeks so…we decided to spice things up a bit for our early Christmas celebration this year! Here’s a preview of our Minute to Win It inspired game day! We had so much fun and so many laughs, in the end I don’t think anyone could remember who won… I think Ava would argue that it was her 🙂

Teammates, spinning in place, transfer ornaments using a ribbon looped around their waists.

What a fun way to work up a Christmas appetite!

Oh how I love a little princess in a Christmas dress! I’m so glad that Ava reminded me this week that, “we didn’t even buy a fancy dress to wear to our Christmas celebrations…”

How blessed we were by our parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and grandparents!

Elle all snuggled and laughing in her homemade Christmas swaddle blanket. Our “Big” baby just loves to be swaddled and has outgrown every receiving blanket on the market. Thank goodness for JoJo and her new sewing machine. We are loving our made-with-love big baby swaddles!

Don’t Break the Ice, anyone?

Our sitting girl 🙂

Ho Ho Ho… Merry Christmas (said in a semi-creepy Santa voice following each and every present 😉 )! Thanks for the fun Family, we love you very much!

*Most of these pictures were taken with our brand new Cannon S95! Thanks Unexperts for the recommendation and THANK YOU PaPa JoJo for the wonderful gift!